Halftime lecture moves UALR

PETE PERKINS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Many things can alter a team's play from one half to the next.
It wasn't obvious at first which of those motivated UALR on Saturday night, when the Trojans turned an eight-point lead late in the first half into an 88-55 victory over the Morris Brown Wolverines at Alltel Arena.
It was made clear as the players left their dressing room.
"Coach chewed us out at halftime," UALR senior guard Laverne Smith said. "He told us we weren't playing with any intensity, and he was right. We played in spurts, but that was it."
"He got on us pretty good," UALR freshman forward Co Willis said.
"I can't tell you word for word what I told them, because I think my mom reads the Internet," UALR Coach Porter Moser said. "But I told them that we can't accept just going through the motions."
Willis hit a 5-foot pull-up jumper to give UALR (6-2) a 32-14 lead with 4:08 left in the first half.
But Morris Brown (2-8) went on a 12-2 run to pull within 34-26 after sophomore forward Amien Hick's layup with 54.6 seconds left.
UALR got free throws from Smith, senior forward Stan Blackmon and sophomore guard Alex Finger over the final 40 seconds to take a 39-26 halftime lead, but they weren't enough to calm Moser.
"If we're going to continue to improve, we can't have stretches where we play like that," Moser said. "Sure, you're going to have stretches where you don't make your shots. You're going to have stretches where the other team makes some shots. But you can't have stretches where you play with no enthusiasm. And we had a three-minute stretch with no enthusiasm, and I can't accept that."
As a crowd of 2,356 watched, UALR pulled away in a burst, beginning with a turnover by Morris Brown that turned into two free throws by Blackmon with 16:37 to play.
Behind its full-court press, applied by Blackmon, sophomore guard Mark Green, senior guard Alan Barksdale, freshman guard Bryan Crislip and senior walk-on forward Roland Bryant, UALR stole the ball in its backcourt on three consecutive possessions.
Layups by Smith and Green, put UALR's lead at 50-31 with 15:32 left.
During a six-minute stretch that began at 18:01, Morris Brown committed nine turnovers in 10 possessions.
Morris Brown had 38 turnovers overall.
"UALR did a very good job with their press," Morris Brown Coach Russell Ellington said. "We turned the ball over far too much, but you have to give them a lot of credit."
Blackmon led UALR with 21 points, 13 of which came on 15 free-throw attempts. Willis scored a career-high 16. Smith scored 12 and Crislip 10.
Willis hit 6 of 8 field-goal attempts.
"Co is very strong," Moser said. "He's powerful. He can finish very well, but sometimes he settles for a little fadeaway or something. When he bulls to the basket, he's hard to stop. When he just takes it to the rim with no fear, he's hard to stop, and that's what he did tonight.
"I thought Willis and Blackmon both played the same way tonight, as hard as they could every minute they were in there."
Just the way Moser likes it.

This article was published on Sunday, December 17, 2000

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